Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the official launch of the revised White Paper on Local Government
Programme Director,
Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Velenkosini Hlabisa,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Premiers and MECs,
Members of Parliament,
Executive Mayors, Mayors and Councillors,
Leadership of the South African Local Government Association,
Traditional and Khoi-San leaders,
Directors-General, Heads of Department and Municipal Managers,
Representatives of business, organised labour, civil society, academia, the judiciary and faith-based organisations,
Development partners and sponsors,
Members of the media,
Distinguished Guests,
Fellow South Africans,
Sanibonani. Dumelang. Molweni. Lotjhani.
We gather here today to undertake one of the most important reforms of our democratic era.The launch of this White Paper on Local Government is a landmark moment in the evolution of our democracy.
Nearly three decades after the original White Paper was adopted, we are undertaking a bold reset of the local government system.
Local government is the sphere of government closest to the people.
From the biggest metro to the smallest village, it is where the promise of democracy is most directly experienced.
It is also where the failure to deliver services is most acutely felt.
It is a reform that goes to the heart of the relationship between government and the people.
It concerns the water that flows from our taps, the electricity that lights our homes, the roads on which we travel, the refuse that is collected from our streets and the communities in which we raise our children.
It concerns the dignity of our people.
For millions of South Africans, the experience of government is not primarily shaped by what happens in Parliament, in provincial legislatures or in the offices of national departments.
It is shaped by what happens in their municipalities.
It is shaped by whether the water runs when they open a tap.
Whether the streetlights work when they return home at night.
Whether the roads are safe, whether sewage flows into their streets and whether their complaints are heard and acted upon.
When these services work, people experience the promise of democracy.
When they fail, it is not merely an inconvenience.
It affects people's health, their livelihoods, their safety and their dignity.
It undermines their confidence in government and weakens their faith in the institutions of our democracy.
We must therefore acknowledge, without qualification, that too many of our municipalities are failing to meet the needs and expectations of the people they are meant to serve.
Too many communities have grown accustomed to services that are unreliable, infrastructure that is deteriorating and municipal administrations that are unresponsive.
This cannot continue.
It is for this reason that we are launching the Revised White Paper on Local Government.
In 1998, the White Paper set out a blueprint for democratic local government.
We inherited a deeply fragmented system, deliberately designed to serve the interests of a minority while denying the majority of South Africans access to basic services and economic opportunity.
Apartheid had created prosperous municipalities with strong revenue bases and well-developed infrastructure alongside impoverished communities with little infrastructure and few resources.
The democratic government faced the enormous task of bringing these divided communities together under one system of local government.
We set out to establish municipalities that would be democratic, accountable and developmental.
We sought to ensure that all South Africans, regardless of where they lived, would enjoy access to essential services.
This revised White Paper lays the foundation for far-reaching legislative, institutional and financial reform of the entire local government system.
This White Paper represents a fundamental reassessment of how local government is structured, financed, managed and held accountable.
It is not simply about changing legislation or rearranging institutions.
It is about changing the lived experience of our people.
It addresses structural weaknesses and outdated assumptions.
It directly tackles the acute challenges facing local government today, including overlapping mandates, unsustainable finances, corruption and weak capability in municipal administrations.
It builds on the Presidential Local Government Summit in 2022 and on the reform agenda that we have set out through Operation Vulindlela.
The development of this White Paper began with a comprehensive review of what has worked and what has not worked.
The review drew on decades of experience.
It reflected on both success and failure.
This year we mark 30 years since our democratic Constitution was signed into law.
This reform goes to the very foundation of that constitutional order – the ability of the state to improve the quality of life of all citizens.
Since 1994, local government has been an engine of development in this country.
Successive democratic administrations have expanded access to basic services to redress the spatial and socio-economic inequalities of apartheid.
Today, more than 90 percent of households have access to electricity.
More than 87 percent have access to piped water.
Between 2004 and 2025, the number of households with municipal piped water rose from 9.2 million to just under 16 million.
Two-thirds of households have access to flush toilets.
Through local government, the free basic services programme reaches millions of indigent households.
It is one of the most direct ways in which the state redistributes resources to those who need them most.
These statistics tell us about lives that have been improved.
They tell us about patients being treated in a hospital with running water and reliable electricity.
About a small business owner who can keep their operations running and pay their staff.
About a matriculant who is able to study at night and fulfil their potential.
These statistics tell us about families living in homes with clean water and proper sanitation.
Yet, when we look more closely at these statistics, we see shortcomings.
We see informal settlements that do not have basic amenities.
We see homes where taps run dry or where electricity supply is unreliable.
We see municipalities that do not have money to build or repair vital infrastructure.
Where roads have been neglected or refuse hasn't been collected.
Many of the challenges we see in local government are systemic.
Apartheid's spatial engineering left us a local government system divided along racial lines and with deeply unequal revenues.
Wealthy municipalities with well-developed infrastructure were joined with poor municipalities that had inadequate services and almost no revenue.
We inherited former homelands deprived of economic opportunity and contested systems of local authority.
When we built a new system in 1998, we worked from certain assumptions.
That joining historically unequal municipalities would produce viable institutions.
That economic growth would strengthen municipal revenue.
That, over time, the new system would overcome the fractures and inequalities we inherited.
We assigned municipalities extensive powers and responsibilities that in some cases outstripped their capability and funding.
We underestimated the importance of training up a new generation of engineers, town planners and municipal managers.
We underestimated how politicised appointments would open the door to corruption, malfeasance and a lack of accountability.
Today our people live with these consequences.
And to address these consequences, we need to go to the cause.
The White Paper sets out to tackle dysfunction by reforming the entire system, not merely by responding to its symptoms.
Firstly, it recognises that municipal distress is not only a problem within the boundaries of an individual municipality.
A municipality's performance is shaped by the laws under which it operates, the functions assigned to it, its resources and the support it receives from the rest of government.
National and provincial government cannot stand apart from municipal failure.
When mandates overlap, when investment is poorly coordinated or when support arrives only after a crisis, the entire system has failed the community.
The White Paper therefore requires us to make responsibilities clearer, to recognise the different circumstances of municipalities and to act earlier when performance deteriorates.
Our Constitution envisages local government as a separate sphere with its own powers and responsibilities.
At the same time, it enjoins the national government to both support and regulate the work of local government, and to ensure that municipalities are able to fulfil their responsibilities effectively.
This White Paper aims to strengthen support to municipalities while enabling intervention where necessary to ensure that services are delivered.
This is especially important in relation to the provision of clean, safe water, as well as electricity, which are essential to provide people with dignity and enable our economy to function.
To this end, the White Paper introduces important changes.
It suggests that the current one-size-fits-all approach to local government powers and functions should be reviewed. Some municipalities are well equipped to carry out particular functions, while others may lack the scale, the revenue base or the capability to do so.
Where a municipality is unable to carry out a particular responsibility, that responsibility should be assigned elsewhere. In many cases, service provision would be better undertaken at a regional scale, or through partnerships and concession arrangements.
The White Paper outlines a clear path towards a differentiated model that would link powers and functions to a municipality’s size, capability and performance. It calls for constitutional and legislative amendments to be considered where necessary to implement this.
While this represents a fundamental change to the way that the local government system works, we must not shy away from the reforms that are needed to fix the crisis in service delivery in many municipalities.
In addition, the White Paper recognises that the role of local government as a provider of water and electricity has not been sufficiently regulated.
To address this, we are separating the role of service authority and service provider, and introducing a compulsory licensing requirement for all water and electricity providers.
Alongside stronger regulation of service provision through the licensing system, we are expanding support to municipalities to build their capability and improve their performance.
The combination of support and regulation, respect for local government autonomy and a willingness to intervene when needed will transform the delivery of basic services.
Secondly, the Revised White Paper proposes that local government be treated as one integrated system.
The District Development Model was introduced to bring government and its partners together around shared priorities in each district and metro.
We must now strengthen that cooperation and ensure it produces results.
National departments, provinces, municipalities and state-owned entities must align their work around the places where people live and where investment must happen.
Our Constitution describes the spheres of government as distinctive, interdependent and interrelated.
These principles must become visible in the way we plan, budget and build.
Thirdly, the White Paper proposes measures to place municipalities on a sustainable financial footing.
These include stronger financial management, better revenue collection, reduced losses and spending that produces value.
The scale of the challenge is clear.
Municipalities owe Eskom more than R120 billion, and many are in arrears to water boards.
No single institutional or financing arrangement will work equally well in every setting.
A metro, a growing secondary city and a rural municipality with a limited revenue base do not face the same conditions.
We must therefore organise responsibilities, resources and support more intelligently, so that every municipality has a credible path to success.
At the same time, we must protect the foundations of service delivery.
For too long, some municipalities have built new infrastructure while neglecting the assets on which communities already depend.
Revenues from the sale of electricity and water are diverted to other functions, instead of being reinvested in the infrastructure needed to deliver those services.
We cannot build our way out of failure if we do not maintain what we have already built.
Going forward, revenues from the sale of electricity and water will be ring-fenced and used to maintain infrastructure before anything else.
This will ensure that our infrastructure is brought back up to standard and sustained for future generations.
A functioning water network, a reliable electricity system, a safe road and a working wastewater treatment plant are economic assets.
They are also instruments of social justice.
Maintenance must become a planned, funded and monitored obligation.
Maintenance must not be an afterthought when infrastructure breaks down.
We must move away from repeatedly rescuing struggling municipalities.
We must build their long-term capability.
Those who can afford to pay for services must contribute.
Government, in turn, must earn that contribution through reliable services, transparent decisions and responsible stewardship of public funds.
Fourthly, the White Paper recommends sweeping changes to professionalise municipalities and build their administrative capacity.
Public office must be restored to its proper purpose: service to the people.
We need councils that lead with integrity, provide effective oversight and put residents ahead of factional or personal interests.
We need administrations led and staffed by people appointed for their competence and commitment to public service.
Political leaders must respect the lawful responsibilities of professional administrators.
And municipal officials must be held accountable.
There must be consequences when public resources are stolen, procurement is manipulated or public duties are neglected.
The exercise of accountability must be fair, lawful and consistent, regardless of status, political affiliation or personal connections.
Communities must be partners in governance, not spectators to it.
Residents must know what their municipality has promised, what resources it has and whether it is delivering.
Participation cannot be reduced to meetings where people speak but nothing changes.
Trust will not be restored by speeches.
It will be restored when a reported fault is fixed promptly.
When a resident receives an honest response to a complaint.
When municipal leaders account openly for their decisions.
Fifthly, the White Paper places the link between well-run local government and economic growth at its centre.
A growing economy needs towns and cities that work.
Investors need certainty.
Entrepreneurs need predictable municipal decisions.
Workers need reliable and affordable access to opportunity.
When water, electricity, transport, land-use planning and local regulation work together, they make investment possible.
When they fail, they deepen poverty and exclusion.
Local government must be a partner in growth, not an obstacle to it.
Municipalities must also plan for risk before disaster strikes, as floods, droughts and fires place growing pressure on communities and infrastructure.
Fellow South Africans,
This White Paper sets out a sequenced, long-term reform agenda.
Cabinet has endorsed a phased approach to implementation.
It will be supported by a time-bound Local Government Transition Management Body, with coordinated leadership from the Department of Cooperative Governance, The Presidency and National Treasury.
This body will not take over the lawful duties of Ministers, provinces, councils or municipal administrations.
Its purpose is to ensure that reform does not fall between institutions, that difficult decisions are taken and that commitments are followed through.
A single Local Government Transition Plan will set out what will change, who is responsible, what must happen first and how progress will be measured.
Some reforms will require legislation, new financing arrangements, new institutional capabilities and, possibly, constitutional amendments,.
These will require careful consultation and disciplined implementation.
But the work must begin now.
In less than two weeks, on the 4th of November, South Africans will vote in the Local Government Elections.
The political parties and candidates seeking public office may compete vigorously for votes.
They may disagree about policy.
They may form coalitions or govern with a majority.
But once elected, they share an obligation greater than party advantage: to ensure that the municipality works.
A disagreement in council must never become an excuse for an unapproved budget, an abandoned project or the collapse of an essential service.
Our people must never be held hostage by political instability.
And so we urge every registered voter to make their voice heard on the 4th of November.
The 1998 White Paper helped us establish democratic local government.
The task before us now is to make developmental local government work as it was intended.
A capable state must deliver where people live, work and raise their children.
A developmental state must improve their quality of life.
A democratic state must earn and keep the trust of its people.
This is a national undertaking that must outlast any election cycle, municipal term or administration.
We thank Minister Hlabisa for his leadership of this reform process.
We thank the many institutions, researchers, practitioners and citizens whose contributions have brought us to this point.
We now have a shared policy direction.
We must now show the courage, determination and discipline to put it into practice.
We must implement the reforms that are needed to fix local government, even when they are difficult.
Let us leave here united on the need for change.
Let us leave here determined to make that change real.
Let us build municipalities that work for every South African.
I thank you.
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